New York Sen. Chuck Schumer pushed back against senators who want biometric screening like fingerprint readers or iris scanners for people entering the country, saying people can change their irises. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

WASHINGTON — It was an eye-opening assertion that seemed better suited to Hollywood than a Senate hearing on immigration reform, but Sen. Chuck Schumer insisted Tuesday that evildoers are doctoring their eyeballs to hide their identities.

The New York senator, a backer of a bill to create a path to citizenship for undocumented Americans, was pushing back Tuesday against senators who want the United States to use biometric measures like iris scanning to screen people entering and exiting the country.

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When Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) said she believed iris scans are a "fail-safe" way to stop identity fraud, Schumer offered a seemingly sci-fi counter: "You can always change the iris of your eye," Schumer said.

That was indeed an option for Tom Cruise's character in a scene in the film "Minority Report."

But if you're not in a movie, it's not really an option, said Kevin Bowyer, computer science chairman at Notre Dame.

Tom Cruise, in the movie ‘Minority Report’ undergoes an eye replacement by government iris recognition systems. In real life, science has not yet made it possible for people to easily change their eyes.

The iris scanning expert said people entering countries using eye scanners have reportedly used eye drops to dilate their eyes and contact lenses to try beating scans.

But authorities can check for both, Bowyer said.

"People aren't going to hire a surgeon to operate on their eyes," he said.

Gregg Homer, a Ph.D. whose California-based Stroma Medical Corporation hopes to become the first in the world to use laser surgery to offer eye-color changes, said the surgery will probably cost about $5,000.